HarryInk

Tom Tom...whereforartthou Tom??? My fav' CM site seems to be no longer...despite the first post above. The link don't work and I've had no joy from the Wargamer site either (www.wargamer.com) where most of the hosted sites seem shot. Sent you a garbled email in awful German and probably garbled English. Please let me/us know if your site is still alive.

After a year of getting my butt kicked, I've finally started designing. I'd really appreciate feedback from any and all: #1 Byte Tchaikovsky, currently hosted by Byte Battler and The Scenario Depot where, of course, reviews would be most welcome. #2 is Byte Luga, currently in development at The Proving Grounds (ace site). It's a historical fight based on an AAR by General Erhard Raus. July 1941: his KG races ahead of the battle lines to seize bridgeheads. At the River Luga he stops and forms a headghog and for a week his brigade fights off 3 Proletarian divisions! This is just a racey little 15 turn number where the CO of 4 Btn, 1st Proletarian Division Russian is trying to overrun the defenders and seize a crucial supply road. The attraction is using an entire battalion of Young Communists in a frenzied 15 minute assault. Can you manage it? The NKVD will be keen to talk with you if you don't! Cheers Harry

I haven't had a problem with double emails, maybe cos I use Eudora. MY WEIRD PROBLEM WITH PBEM HELPER is that when I write a message to 'taunt' an opponent, it ends up being sent to all the opponents to whom I send mails. Does anyone know why this happens? and/or how to have it NOT happen!? As it is, I often send the file, then a separate email comment...which seems silly given the 'taunt' option.

I'm stunned at the length and breadth of the discussion that's flowed from my original question. Thank you to all who've participated thus far. I haven't had time to digest it all (having just returned to it after the initial few posts) but look forward to the next few days of looking it over. I do make the point though that I was interested in all divisions - not just German ones - and particularly on the practical aspects for the Div General and his Chief of Staff in deploying the elements of a division for it's assigned tasks. So, JasonC's comments about having to manage frontage within the constraints of artillery range and exposure are along the lines of what I was thinking about. Equally, some early comments about how 2500 casualties could gut the combat component of a '12000' man div. Anyway, time to settle down with my printouts and learn. Cheers Harry

Oh...that's good. ho ho ho hehehehe ROTFLMFAO...*wipe eyes* *sob with uncontrollable giggling*... ah...I've seen similar vehicular slapstick in soooooo many of my CM games, but that one is REALLY good. For my part, after 3 weeks in CMBB-land: 1. Trying the "aren't CMBB infantry just like CMBO supermen?....oh...ooops" 2. Discovering that my cleverly designed June 1941 ambush of massed T26S's is in fact a cleverly designed shooting gallery for the German armor that rolls around a corner 350m away and which, I discover, I can't even penetrate. 3. Prebombardment hell. 4. Becoming so freaked out that I spray and bombard every inch of ground in front of my advancing troops. Losing control of the process, I bombard my own leading elements AND run out of support ammo before meeting the Ivans! Not a big list, but gee, my first round of PBEMs are just warming up. *checks mails* **Possible Spoiler** Oh hey, I just got a KV2 into a situation in Tiger!Tiger! where it had a 1% chance to hit two Tigers at about 850m. Alas, if they'd only had the same chance too..... *sob* God! I can't wait to see what the other mails have in stall for me. *grin* **Likely to be continued...**

Sorry Slappy. I've got my laptop and CMBB up and running now. I'll get you an AAR soon. I was a little surprised by the lack of a briefing with a hint of intelligence report, though. Cheers HH

Searching through the DB I found the following thread that solved the minimize/restore blackout problem I was having. All Praise to Peckham!! All praise to the CM community! Down with Microsoft and their damn 'fixes'. Grrrrr http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=003337

I love you, Peckham. The minimize/restore blackscreen problem was the one blight on my otherwise happy CMBB dreaming. I followed your ace detective work, have executed your solution, and just minimized and restored my game a few times faultlessly. I want to have your babies!! *L* Well done. Thanks.

Hi from a CMBB newbie. I've got a new IBM R40 laptop running Windows XP with a ATI Radeon video card. I have the problem described below in MadMatt's FAQs. Solution #2 just doesn't work for me. After minimizing the screen, I only get blackness when I maximize. For Solution #1, I have found the video card display panel menus but I can't find the 'Full Screen Anti-Aliasing' thingamijig he refers to to fix the problem. Can anyone give me directions? Thanks in anticipation. Problem: Game seems to lock up or display a black screen immediately after game is loaded, you may hear the intro music or sound still. Video card is a Radeon card. Cause/Solution #1: The problem is with the video drivers. They have a problem properly initializing the screen graphics when Anti-Aliasing is enabled. Turn off Full Screen Anti-aliasing for your video card. This can be done via the video cards display properties panel. Cause/Solution #2: Minimize CMBB by pressing Alt-Tab and then re-maximize it by clicking on its icon on the Taskbar. The display should properly refresh and everything should be visible again. Cheers HarryInk

Cheers all! Well, I'm roaring along with my CMBB reading and it occurs to me that amidst text like: "On the first day of the atack on Ponyri the railway embankment on the north-western edge of the village had been taken by the 292nd Division. Thereafter 18th and 9th Panzer Divisions clawed their way in Ponyri... " [from Robin Cross' Citadel: The Battle of Kursk And so on and so on. In general, most of this histories I've read talk in divisions, rarely in regiments, and almost never in battalions or companies like we play. Divisions obviously deserve a little more understanding... So, can anyone give me a little advice about how I can get a feel for how DIVISIONS were used in battle? Cheers [ July 22, 2003, 09:45 AM: Message edited by: HarryInk ]

OK. Among all these fab old MODers, it was a stupid question. *L*blush*

Be-uuuuuu-tiful! Muther be-uuuuu-tiful. Juju, with the work you put in, I can understand swearing off 'em. But when you do something soooo well.... well, it's just hard to give it up. Ace. Now, a realy dumb mod question from a soon to be CMBB newbie. If I install beauties such as these for a 1945 game vs. Opponent #1, and have a 1941 game vs. Opp#2 and install pretty Russian buildings, does CM remember which mods go with which game? I doubt it's that complex yet, but I'll be happy if I'm surprised.....

heheh...takes an aussie to know about criminals. It's in our blood.

Welcome Denwad. Ah....years from now you will think to yourself: "Christ!! I really wasted a lot of time with all that military stuff!" I did. I spent a happy decade free of militaria. Then I bumped into Combat Mission. Oh the fall. Just pray you discover girls early. Alas, your chances in that direction are NOT something that CM will enhance. Naughty CM!! Bad bad computer game.

Tecumseh...have you got a tighter ref for that military atlas? And thanks also for the Osprey ref. I'll cruise the local military bookshops and see what I can find...

I'll be using CMBB in a fortnight, I hope. So I'd be interested to try these instructional scenarios. Email: harryink@alphalink.com.au Cheers Harry

I'll be using CMBB in a fortnight, I hope. So I'd be interested to try these instructional scenarios. Email: harryink@alphalink.com.au Cheers Harry

I'll be using CMBB in a fortnight, I hope. So I'd be interested to try these instructional scenarios. Email: harryink@alphalink.com.au Cheers Harry

I'll be using CMBB in a fortnight, I hope. So I'd be interested to try these instructional scenarios. Email: harryink@alphalink.com.au Cheers Harry

I'll be using CMBB in a fortnight, I hope. So I'd be interested to try these instructional scenarios. Email: harryink@alphalink.com.au Cheers Harry

Thanks muchly, Von Paulus. I've just finished Adair. Frustrating book. Very interesting event glossed over by others...Alan Clark in Barbarossa gives it barely a page and subsumes it in a discussion of the 20 July assassination plot on Hitler. *sigh* And given that it's a greater defeat than Stalingrad, this seems trite. A symptom, i suppose of anglophone's reliance on German records produced for the US army postwar. Ultimately, I didn't think Adair managed the narrative at all well. The event became fractured and barely coherent. Perhaps that's what a rout is supposed to read like?! Still, it was a good introduction to a crucial moment on the Eastern Front. There are heaps of interesting fights/scenarios here: partisans seizing bridges and holding out until relief arrives; the 5th Panzer vs. 5th Tank army; the 12th panzers Divisions desperate series of holding actions that allowed over 12,000 German troops to flee to safety; Russian 'reconnaisance in force' battles, and plenty of MEs as deep penetration columns chase retreating germans through the Byelorussian forests and swamps...

Well, last time I asked about maps, I got brilliant replies. It just encourages me to ask again! I'm reading Paul Adair's Hitler's Greatest Defeat: The collapse of Army Group Centre at the moment. The maps are figurative rather than enjoyable. I've done a little poking about on the net for Belorus maps, but can anyone on this forum suggest any good net (or other) sources for topographical quality(-ish) maps for the areas around Vitebsk... Minsk... Bobruisk... Mogilev? I know there's some ace Ukraine maps, but anyone aware of any for the central area of the front? Thanks in anticipation....

Jesus wept. Bad or badder? Let me see: during his Italian campaign in 1796 Napoleon and General Lannes personally direct the execution of hundreds of Piedmontese partisans in their rear areas. So, virually from the start they both qualify as modern war criminals. Hitler bares comparison only insofar as the magnitude of his crimes are staggering. 11 million in death camps...40?50 million in a world war... Even in 1941, the Wehrmacht assesses 30 million Russians will starve to death so as the Heer etc. can live off the land, leaving the peasants to die. Is it fortunate that only 13 million die instead? ? *shiver and shake* Anyway, I visited the HistWar site. Looks great and promising. Fingers crossed it comes out: I'll be lining up for a copy.

Ask a question...virtually any question...and get decent answers on this forum!! Thanks fellas, great stuff. And I've visited the Stormpages. Lots of nifty stuff there, too. Easily digestible. Cheers

Vive les guerriers napoleoniennes!! Indeed, the f lash of sabres, roar of grand batteries, smoke of massed muskets...yep...we're just hinting that there's a market. Yep, and keep reading Ant. There are well over 500,000 men at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813. Even the Revolutionary campaigns on the Rhine managed armies of 120,000. However , the way those armies maneuvered was quite different, especially early on when divisional warfare was the norm. And think of the fast and furious fun of Napoleon's Italian campaigns! Campaigns and battles of only 30,000 to 60,000 troops a side. The ability to get there with 'the fastest with the mostest' -- what we do in CM in a tactical way but could do in a strategic way in a Nap' campaign -- that, I reckon, would be the addictive thing. But maybe that's just my gig? Posted by MikeyD: Hmmm..the ships would be really cool, but the hoplites? Nahhhhh...just a bunch of heavy armored dudes in same-old same-old ritual battles. But the Romans...ah well, there's an army for ya! [